YSR Congress party president and Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday decided not to campaign for the party in the by-election to Tirupati parliamentary seat, apparently due to rising Covid-19 cases in the temple town.
Jagan was supposed to address a big public meeting at Tirupati on April 14, the penultimate day of the election campaign for the by-poll. He wrote an open letter to the people of Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency that he has decided to cancel his meeting due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases.
He reminded that he had already written to each of the voters of Tirupati requesting them to vote for the YSR Congress party candidate Dr M Gurumoorthy and listed out a series of welfare and developmental programmes initiated by his government based on which he was seeking their votes.
However, Jagan said he was not able to meet them personally because health of every citizen mattered to him.
“I know, thousands of people will turn up at my public meeting but I cannot risk their lives for the sake of the elections. Therefore, being a responsible chief minister, I have decided to cancel my trip to the poll bound constituency,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the voters of Tirupati would support the YSRC party in the elections and shower more blessings than they had given to the party in the last elections.
While growing number of Covid-19 cases could be the valid reason for the cancellation of Jagan’s visit to Tirupati, sources said it could also be due to security reasons.
“Apparently, there are intelligence reports that there might be security concerns to the chief minister during his visit,” sources said.
There is also a talk that Jagan wants to prove to the opposition that his party candidate can win the elections, even if he doesn’t campaign.
“The intelligence reports might have indicated that the Dr Gurumoorthy would win with huge majority, there was no need for the CM’s public meeting,” another source said.
1728569961.jpg)
